Following an expansion of the Panama Canal in 2016, up to 10% of container traffic to the U.S. from East Asia could shift from West Coast ports to East Coast ports by 2020, according to research by the Boston Consulting Group and C.H. Robinson.

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports has returned to normal levels following ratification of a new West Coast labor agreement, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report.

A bill introduced on June 5 would expand the powers granted by the Taft-Hartley Act regarding labor disputes at U.S. ports allowing state governors the intervention powers currently reserved for the President.

Intermodal freight movements are finally recovering since a tentative agreement was worked out about three weeks ago between West Coast Port workers and shipping companies, but diversions of freight from this part of the country are expected to continue.

The Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on Friday evening announced a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract covering 13,000 workers at all 29 West Coast ports – but problems at the ports are far from over.

U.S. retail sales slumped in January for the second straight months, falling 0.8% from the month before, according to a new Commerce Department report and double the amount forecast by many economists.

After only three days of bargaining, about 100 port truck drivers employed by the trucking company Shippers Transport Express, who were reclassified as employees the first of the year and later voted to be represented by the Teamsters Union, approved a collective bargaining agreement on Sunday.

Seven U.S. port truck drivers last week won what a Teamsters Union-backed group called a “historic precedent-setting victory” against one trucking company, when they were awarded more than $2 million in a court challenge over claims of wage theft in the form of unlawful payroll deductions and expenses.

Marine ports in Georgia ended 2014 with growth in all cargo sectors, including a 10.2% increase in twenty-foot equivalent container units, and a 7.4% increase in total tonnage, according to new figures released by the Georgia Ports Authority.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration announced some changes to the Transportation Worker Identification Credential card program, used by truckers and other transportation workers to access the nation’s maritime ports.